After angering Americans still shaken by the Newtown massacre,
National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre has managed to irritate Israeli officials with statements about Israel's
school security, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

In an appearance at NBC's Meet the Press, LaPierre tried to fend off criticism and promote his initiative to place security guards
in schools in order to prevent shootings.

"Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: They said, 'We're going to stop it,' and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then," he said.

The statements were quickly proven to be false. Israeli guards were not placed in schools to tackle mass shootings. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the Daily News that the situation in Israel was “fundamentally different” from that in the United States.

“We didn’t have a series of school shootings, and they had nothing to do with the issue at hand in the United States. We had to deal with terrorism,” said Palmor.

“There is no comparison between maniacs with psychological problems opening fire at random to kill innocent people and trained terrorists trying to murder Israeli children,” said Reuven Berko, a retired Israeli Army colonel and senior police officer.

He further remarked that restrictions on gun ownership in Israel have been tightened in recent years, not relaxed.

“Israeli citizens are not allowed to carry guns unless they are serving in the army or working in security-related jobs that require them to use a weapon,” he said.